Contrasting fortunes
EU concerned Brexit talks may be delayed
Britain’s opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn (left) gives a thumb-up as he arrives at Labour party headquarters in central London on Friday after results in a snap general election showed a hung parliament with Labour gaining and the Conservatives losing majority. British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in Downing Street on Friday after her Conservative party suffered a setback in the election. May said she planned to stick to the timetable for starting Brexit negotiations in 10 days, with a new government that would lead Britain out of the EU
British Prime Minister Theresa May will form a government supported by a small Northern Irish party after her Conservative party lost its parliamentary majority in an election debacle days before talks on Brexit are due to begin.
May, speaking outside Downing Street residence, said the government would provide certainty and lead Britain in talks with the European Union to secure a successful Brexit deal.
But with her authority diminished, May risks facing more opposition to her Brexit plans from both inside and outside her Conservative party, and some colleagues may be lining up to replace her.
“She’s staying, for now,” a party source told Reuters.
May said she could rely in parliament on the support of her “friends” in Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) after her governing Conservatives failed to emerge as clear winners.
Confident of securing a sweeping victory, May had called the snap election to strengthen her hand in the European Union divorce talks. But in one of the most sensational nights in British electoral history, a resurgent Labour party denied her an outright win, throwing the country into political turmoil.
The vote also sparked concerns on economic uncertainty, with traders and analysts in London spoke about feeling jaded, because the UK’s second shock election result in a year throws the nature of Brexit talks into yet more doubt.
EU leaders also expressed fears that May’s shock loss of her majority would delay the Brexit talks, due to begin on June 19, and so raise the risk of negotiations failing.
“We hope that the UK will be able to form a stable government as soon as possible and our negotiating team headed by Michel Barnier is very well prepared,” Alexander Winterstein, deputy chief spokesperson of the European Commission, said at a press briefing.
“China attached great importance to the development of Sino-UK relations as always and is willing to work with the UK to boost the bilateral ties for more development,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a Friday briefing.
May’s Labour rival Jeremy Corbyn said May should step down, and he wanted to form a minority government.
But May, facing scorn for running a lackluster campaign, was determined to hang on. Just after noon, she was driven the short distance from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace to ask Queen Elizabeth for permission to form a government.
With 649 of 650 seats declared, the Conservatives had won 318 seats and Labour 261 followed by the pro-independence Scottish National Party on 34.
The shock result thrust Northern Ireland’s centre-right DUP into the role of kingmaker, with its 10 seats enough to give the Conservatives a fragile but workable partnership.
This was likely to involve an arrangement in which the DUP would support a Conservative minority government on key votes in parliament but not form a formal coalition.
But with the complex talks on the divorce from the EU due to start in 10 days, it was unclear what their direction would now be and if the so-called Hard Brexit taking Britain out of a single market could still be pursued.
After winning his own seat in north London, Corbyn said May’s attempt to win a bigger mandate had backfired.
The latest UK election outcome signals that the country, which not many decades ago was called an empire on which the sun never sets, is thrown into unprecedented uncertainty. With the Conservatives led by Prime Minister Theresa May failing to secure a parliamentary majority, the country now looks set for a hung parliament. A hung parliament means the ruling Conservative party does not have enough lawmakers to exercise outright control and carry decisions through. The Tories will probably have to rely on support from other parties to cling to power. That means the road ahead will be muddy with all the tedious personnel and policy coordination and negotiations expected.
May called a snap election, hoping to win her a mandate to see the UK through Brexit talks and realize her version of a hard Brexit. However, Friday’s result not only deals a crushing blow to her Brexit plan, but also raises questions about whether she could continue to stay in No.10 Downing Street. So what went wrong with May? Is it because the Tories’ internal and foreign policies failed to win public support or a series of recent terrorist attacks in Britain created worries among the public about its anti-terrorist measures? These are all superficial symptoms.
May and her Conservative party seek to boost their power and influence through a Brexit deal and enhance Britain’s unity, stability and gain public support. But she and her party have underestimated the challenges facing the country and misjudged the mood of the public.
Brexit is in itself not a clear choice but instead overturns Britain’s political and economic development plan. The June 2016 referendum offered May a chance to assume power but it does not mean British people have gained a clear understanding of which direction the country should head for. On a lighter note, it seems that Britain wants to try its luck in finding an exit to a labyrinth. On a serious note, British people are making a bet on Brexit as they are struggling to find a sense of belonging amid extreme anxiety and bewilderment about the prospect of European integration. Britain needs a strong and powerful government to guide the country forward. May could not bridge the divide in the public opinion to restore a powerful ruling party. Britain has plunged into a lost era where a Brexit widens the divide in public opinion and shakes the foundation on which the British society has reached a consensus. Increasingly more people began to realize that the problems confronting Britain cannot be solved even if they have decided on whether to stay in the EU or not.
In British author Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 classic “The Lost World,” the British expedition team doesn’t get lost in the wild. But today, in the real world, British, “descendants of Sherlock Holmes,” are somehow lost.